For years the GOP has been branding/labeling Democrats by creating phrases that elicit perceptions about our party. Frank Luntz is the individual who initiated this approach. His idea was to coin short phrases that would convey something negative about our party, and he demanded that all Republicans -- Senators, House members, television pundits -- use them repeatedly. He believed, and was right, that use of these phrases by ALL members of the GOP, and use of them ALL the time, would create a negative perception about Democrats that would become ingrained in the minds of the public, of the American electorate, and thus alter how many voted. Examples? Think of "tax-and-spend liberals," "limousine liberals," "cut-and-run Democrats," "nanny state," "war on Christmas," to name just a few.

The GOP, in formulating these phrases, has created a playbook. All the members study their playbook and use it like a sledgehammer on the public. Just turn on CNN or MSNBC (and of course FOX) and you hear the phrases used by Republicans every time, all the time.

And so the time has come to create our own playbook. We have the opportunity to define the Republican Party, to create long-lasting perceptions about them. In other words, they've been defining -- branding -- us for decades. It's now our time to define -- to brand -- them!

Below are two graphics that convey the same information as the graphic above, just less tedious and more entertaining:

We still don't seem to get it, this concept of framing the message, of branding the opposition, of creating long-lasting perceptions about the GOP that would sway votes for generations to come.

We have to brand the GOP as "The Party Of Recession," as "The Party Of Job Destroyers."

Perhaps it's anathema to some in our party to use the Frank Luntz method of branding the opposition by using catchy slogans and labels... but it works. And the one key difference is we can BACK up our labels with FACTS (something Republicans could never do).

We must use a common language, a set of terms/phrases, when speaking of Republicans. We must ALL use these terms/phrases, and AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. And, we have the facts to back them up, for those who feel guilty about using this approach created by Luntz.

Completely AGREE...I've said for YEARS that LANGUAGE is very important when we're talking politics, especially with those who have been BORGED by Faux Noise and other propaganda machine talkers. I always used the words "BUSH RECESSION" prior to 2008, or the REPUBLICAN-CAUSED RECESSION. I don't know why the Democrats seem to want to always play nice...hell, nobody plays nicely with them!

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Picture. A thousand words. Etc. The instant any Democrat uses this chart showing that between 1961 and 2012, the United States added 42 million private-sector jobs under Democratic presidents and 23.9 million private-sector jobs under Republican presidents, despite Republicans holding the presidency for 28 years during that period compared with 23 years for Democrats, PolitiFact will doubtless devote hundreds of words of dubious "context" to label it some form of untruth despite the clarity of the comparison. But whatever the relationship between correlation and causation here, this is a stark contrast:

Through April, Democratic presidents accounted for an average of 150,000 additional private-sector paychecks per month over that period, more than double the 71,000 average for Republicans.

Republican presidencies, though, saw slightly greater creation of public-sector jobs, which rose by 7.1 million under Republicans and 6.3 million under Democrats—a difference that would be entirely irrelevant if Republicans weren't always running around wailing about big government and demonizing public workers.

The presidents who averaged the most jobs created per month were Bill Clinton, at 217,000; Jimmy Carter, at 188,000; and Ronald Reagan, at 153,000. That's right. Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan. The only president to preside over a cumulative loss of private-sector jobs was, of course, George W. Bush.

As America prepares to pick our president for the next four years — and as Florida prepares once again to play a decisive role — I'm confident that President Barack Obama is the right leader for our state and the nation. I applaud and share his vision of a future built by a strong and confident middle class in an economy that gives us the opportunity to reap prosperity through hard work and personal responsibility. It is a vision of the future proven right by our history.

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But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.

The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman